Navigation des articles

The Sri Lankan Government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa has in a decisive move with far reaching implications proscribed as foreign terrorist entities several overseas organizations suspected of being fronts of the Liberaton Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).

…

The Government is also likely to obtain cooperation from these Western countries to proclaim LTTE activists abroad as offenders” listed as Wanted or to be watched through related INTERPOL notices.

Speaking further authoritative sources said that as a result of the proscription coming into force Sri Lankan nationals in the Island will be forbidden to maintain contact or links with members of the proscribed organizations.This would prevent Sri Lankan political parties and leaders from obtaining funds from such entities for undertakings in Sri Lanka. This move is likely to affect several members of Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka.

This would also forbid Sri Lankan politicians and Non –Governmental Organization (NGO) activists being in contact with representatives of such entities either in Sri Lanka or during trips abroad.

Sections of the media in Sri Lanka giving wide coverage to statements and interviews given by officials of such organizations will also be restricted from doing so.

Furthermore the proscription will also render members of these proscribed entities liable for arrest under the Prevention of Terrorism Act(PTA) if and when apprehended while visiting Sri Lanka.

Lawyers, academics and activists hit out at the growing militarisation of every aspect of society at a forum organised by the BASL to analyse the implications of a gazette vesting police powers in the armed forces.

What to do with Sri Lanka? The island nation, triumphant after nearly three decades of war against ethnic separatists, has vexed the United Nations.

Five years after the war’s brutal ending, the world body has been unable to address grave human rights violations committed by the warring parties, making Sri Lanka something of an object lesson in the difficulties of pursuing accountability.

Concerns over the large military presence in the north are compounded by the government’s continuing efforts to mislead domestic and international audiences. Even accounting for an element of exaggeration concerning its own development footprint, there is no doubt that the military continues to exercise a high degree of control over all aspects of people’s lives in the north. Reconciliation and lasting peace are made harder as a result.

At the end of the Sri Lankan civil war the government of Sri Lanka held a press conference, writes Callum Macrae. Five doctors who had been trapped in the war zones – and had told the world of the awful suffering of the trapped civilians – were paraded in front of the world’s media.

And what they said could not be clearer – everything they had said from within the war zone was wrong. The government had not shelled hospitals. Only a few civilians had died. All the allegations of war crimes by government forces were a lie.

Several Indian politicians on Friday questioned India’s decision to abstain from a United Nations Human Rights Council vote that approved an international investigation into war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels toward the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war.

Below you will find an announcement of the upcoming Seventh Annual Tamil Studies Conference –« In Many Worlds: Kudi / Kudiyurimai, Belonging, and Citizenship in the Tamil Imaginary »–to be held in Toronto on May 16-18, 2014.

“In Many Worlds: Kudi / Kudiyurimai,

Belonging, and Citizenship in the Tamil Imaginary” Organised by the University of Toronto, St. George and Scarborough Campuses, to be held on May16- May 18, 2014.

The plenary speakers include: C.S. Lakshmi, (a world renowned author and feminist scholar), and V. Arasu, (Head of the Tamil Department at the University of Madras and leading scholar of Tamil literature and print culture).

There will be more than 30 papers read by scholars, artists, activists and writers from N.America, Europe, S.Asia, Central America and Australasia.

***Please note: On May 16 , the conference will be free for everyone to attend and it will be held at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. More information will be available for the programs on that day shortly

Moreover, this year we will have a special performance called « Uravu ». This will take place on May 17 @ 8.00pm.

There will also be a show on May 18, details TBA.
Tickets will be: $15 (early bird) and $20 (at the door)***

Please see the website: http://www.tamilstudiesconference.ca/ for full details of the participating scholars, performances and to register to attend. Registration is now open and will remain open until May 8 2014, 2pm. After this date, all those interested in attending the conference can register on the days of the conference.

Increasing numbers of rapes and sexual assaults are poisoning Sri Lanka’s south west coast, with TripAdvisor reviews now warning female tourists to stay away from Tangalle or risk having their drinks spiked. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A new report named “An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka, 2009 – 2014″ published today details evidence of ongoing sexual violence and torture in Sri Lanka – some as recent as February 2014 – from international human rights lawyer Yasmin Sooka, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) and The International Truth & Justice Project, Sri Lanka.

« Horrifying details of sexual and physical abuse, including forced oral sex, anal rape and water torture, have been documented in a new report on Sri Lanka’s treatment of Tamils after the end of the 2009 civil war, which includes testimony from returned asylum seekers and raises further questions about Australia’s deportation of Tamils. »